John hutchison



J. HUTGHISON.

Ship-Building.

Patented July 2, 1861 N.PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGRAFHER, WASHINGTON. D, C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HUTGHISON, OF MATTEANVAN, NEW YORK.

BOAT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 82,695, dated July 2, 1861'.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN HUTOHISON, of Matteawan, in'the county ofDutchess and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Boat;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawing, forming part of this specifioation,-in

Figure 1 represents a longitudinal vertical section of my invention.Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of referencein both views indicate corresponding parts.

This invention consists in a boat made of splints of wood woven togetheror connected in the manner of ordinary basket-work, and covered withindia-rubber cloth or with any other suitable material impervious towater, thereby rendering the boat exceedingly light and buoyant andsuiiiciently strong to carry a comparatively heavy load while at thesame time the sides of the boat are of such a nature, that they are notliable to be stove in by coming in contact with another vessel.

T 0 enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I willproceed to describe its construction and operation with reference to thedrawing.

The body of the boat A, is made of splints a, of hickory or any othersuitable wood, which are laid crosswise to each other and woven togetherin the manner of ordinary lmsket-work. A square timber Z), attached tothe bottom of the basket-work, and bent up on its ends, forms the keelof the boat and also its stem and stern and the whole is fur therstrengthened by a strip 0, of wood se cured to the longitudinal centerof the boat on its inner surface and bent up at the stem and stern asclearly shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing. The strip 0, and the keel b, areunited by suitable bands, or in any other convenient manner, and theWhole boat is covered over on its outside by india-rubber cloth (Z, orother suitable material impervious to Water. The gunwale e, of the boatis strengthened by an additional strip of wood, to which the ends of.the splints and also the ends of the covering are fastened.

The buoyancy of the boat may, of course, be increased by means ofair-tight chambers in the manner of ordinary life boats. The principaladvantages of a boat constructed according to my invention are, that thesame is exceedingly light and buoyant and that its sides are so elasticthat the boat is not likely to become broken or seriously injured bybeing thrown against a vessel or other body, and furthermore a blow orpressure exerted on any part of its sides willleave no seriousimpression, since every portion of the same will reassume its originalshape as soon as the pressure ceases. And furthermore a boat of thisconstruction can be got up at a very small expense compared to the costof ordinary boats; it can be more easily handled than the old boats; andit is less liable to become broken or stove in just when its servicesare most needed.

It is obvious that the shape and size of the boat may be made to suitthe builder; and that my invention is equally applicable to all classesof boats, but it is of particular value for life-boats, in which greatbuoyancy and superior lightness combined with sufficient strength arethe chief requisites.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent is A boat A, made of splints a, of hickoryor other suitable wood connected and woven together in the manner ofordinary basketwork, and strengthened by a keel b, and longitudinalcentral strip 0, and by a gunwale e, and covered over with india-rubbercloth or other Water-tight material; all in the manner herein shown anddescribed.

' JOHN HUTCHISON.

Vitnesses:

M. M. LIVINGSTON, LEWIS A. TUCKER.

